Most of the increased pay came from more valuable stock and option awards, a preferred source of compensation for corporate boards because it ties CEO pay more closely to company performance.

“The market has come back, so stock awards are more valuable,” said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware and an executive compensation expert.

• William Furman, CEO of The Greenbrier Cos. Inc., earned $2.5 million in 2011, a 209 percent increase from the previous year, but still below the $4 million he earned in 2008. Lake Oswego-based Greenbrier had a strong 2011 with increases in share price, sales and profits.

• Patricia Moss, the former CEO of Bend’s Cascade Bancorp, earned nearly $2.7 million in 2011, largely as a result of a pension increase. Moss retired in December after more than 34 years at the bank.

The CEOs of Oregon’s two Fortune 500 companies — Precision Castparts Corp.’s Mark Donegan and Nike Inc.’s Mark Parker — once again top the list. The executives have ranked Nos. 1 and 2 since 2009.

The Precision Castparts board rewarded Donegan with an 11 percent raise in 2011, in line with the company’s performance. Its shares climbed 17 percent in 2011. Sales and profit increased 14 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Parker’s pay fell 16 percent in 2011 to $11 million because the company missed some three-year performance targets.

That sort of pay for performance continues to be popular for the boards that set executive compensation levels.

Portland-based Rentrak Corp. CEO William Livek took a 26 percent pay cut in 2011 after the company’s net income dropped to a $767,000 loss in 2011 after earning $576,000 in 2010.

“It’s very simple at our company,” said Chief Financial Officer Dave Carlson. “Around 1999-2000 the company went through a significant turnaround. The board and the management team felt it was best that we provide incentives based on a minimum threshold of profitability every year. It’s totally objective.”

Carlson expects a better year in 2012. LaCrosse received a $15.4 million order in September that was booked across the last quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of this year, giving it a head start on its 2012 goals.

The overall increase in CEO pay comes one year after the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law started to require a non-binding shareholder vote on executive compensation.

Elson said the increased attention reigned in the most egregious CEO pay practices but didn’t wipe out the problem of CEO pay dwarfing what many workers earn. He and other corporate governance experts are turning their attention to how boards select the peer groups on which they base CEO salaries.

“It’s not just that the boards are bad boards,” Elson said. “It’s that they always put themselves in the biggest pay group. On a national basis, that means everybody’s pay will be escalated.”

The SEC is also continuing to refine a requirement of Dodd-Frank that will require public companies to publish a ratio that shows CEO pay in comparison to that of the average worker. Problems such as how to count overseas workers, contractors and part-time employees have made it difficult to establish a formula for the ratio.

One CEO who will likely never earn the ire of the SEC or Elson is Portland-based Jewett-Cameron Trading Co. Ltd.’s Donald Boone.

Boone earned $39,600 in 2011 after a 3 percent raise.

“I’m not working for money is the difference,” Boone said. “I set the salary level back when I started in 1984 and have never had any reason to change it.”

The company has a strong balance sheet and has repurchased roughly a quarter of its shares.

“We’ve been very successful,” Boone said. “Obviously there’s enough cash that I could justify a higher salary.”

Fast Fact

Visit the Business Journal’s website, www.portland.bizjournals.com, to view a searchable database of executive compensation at Oregon public companies.

Executive Compensation Methodology

The Business Journal’s executive compensation totals include salary, bonus, pension contributions and the value of perks, such as country club memberships and the use of corporate aircraft.

The Business Journal previously included the value of stock options and awards given in previous years, but cashed in during the most recent year. The calculation gave readers a precise number for how much compensation an executive actually took home in a calendar year.

Last year the Business Journal switched to the Associated Press method for calculating executive compensation. The big difference is that the AP formula forecasts the value of stock options and awards given during the most recent year. The formula allows readers to judge an executive’s compensation package more fairly against company performance, even though it puts a hypothetical value on stock options that might never get cashed in. It doesn’t include the money executives pocketed from cashing in options awarded in previous years.

The information is pulled from each company’s most recent proxy statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.